Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a prevalent neurological disorder affecting memory function in elderly persons. Indeed, AD exhibits abnormality in cognitive behaviors and higher susceptibility to neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS). Various factors including aging, sex difference and NPS severity, are implicated during in development of AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElderly patients with dementia suffer from cognitive dysfunctions and neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) such as anxiety and depression. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a form of age-related dementia, and loss of cholinergic neurons is intimately associated with development of AD symptoms. We and others have reported that neural cell transplantation ameliorated cognitive dysfunction in AD model mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: CCL2 (also known as monocyte chemoattractant protein 1) and CX3CR1 (also known as Fractalkine receptor)-deficient mice have damaged photoreceptors.
Objectives: We examined the interaction of SDF1 and CXCR4 on the differentiation of retinal progenitors into rhodopsin-positive photoreceptors.
Methods: Cloned retinal progenitors were obtained by Pax6 gene transfection of mouse iPS cells followed by serial dilution.
Reelin is a large glycoprotein which regulates central nervous system (CNS) development. Dysfunctions of Reelin were reported on certain neuropsychiatric diseases. We examined involvement of Reelin pathway in functional recovery of hemiplegic mice after neural transplantation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransplantation of stem cells that differentiate into more mature neural cells brings about functional improvement in preclinical studies of stroke. Previous transplant approaches in the diseased brain utilized injection of the cells in a cell suspension. In addition, neural stem cells were preferentially used for grafting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe previously reported that transfection of Pax6 gene which regulated early events in eye development into mouse ES cells brought about their differentiation into retinal progenitors. Here, we attempted to establish cloned retinal progenitors which had ability to further differentiate into photoreceptor like cells by transfecting mouse induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells with Pax6 gene. Undifferentiated iPS cells were transfected with Pax6 cDNA, followed by selection with G418.
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